, which I translate, with Renouf, the porter or doorkeeper though I should prefer, he who is within the door, since the vignettes show that the so-called porter or doorkeeper is the god who occupies the cell. There are 21 pylons, out of which the papyri give us a certain number. Brugsch finds in their names those of some of the hours of night or day; but the fact of their being 21, absolutely precludes the idea of these pylons being the hours.
The papyrus of Nu in the British Museum gives a slightly different version of this chapter 146. Each pylon is introduced by these words, “said by Nu when he arrives at the first pylon: I have arrived, I know thee, I know the name of the god who guardeth thee; the lady of trembling, &c., is thy name, the name of the doorkeeper is the brave.” The other version which constitutes chapter 145 shows that the god who guardeth the pylon and the doorkeeper are the same person.
Chapter 145 is the same text which has been spun out a little more. We have no older copy of it than the fragments in the tomb of Meneptah Siphtah and queen Tauser, which give us only eleven pylons, with a very incorrect text. As for the Turin text, it is so hopelessly corrupt, especially in the most important part, the names, that I did not attempt to translate it. Then chapter 145 is the text of Nu for 146 still more developed. In the version of the royal tomb, each paragraph is called: “The salutation of Osiris, the king, to the pylon: I know thee, I know thy name, I know the name of the god who guardeth thee.” Then follow the name of the pylon, and that of the god, and after having said them, the deceased describes the purifications he goes through, the oils with which he has been anointed, and the text ends with these words: pass on, thou art pure.
It is curious that both in 145 and 146 there is a change at the pylon No. 11. In our text, Lc, the name of the doorkeeper disappears, and each time, after the name of the pylon, we find these words:
